Chapter 135 The Basement.
It was still daylight.
For the first time, Tsukino and Chiya's group did not use any lighting tools when exploring such a place.
In the bright light, the entire shrine was clearly visible to the three of them.
The shrine, which hadn't been cleaned for some time, was overgrown with weeds. Tsukino and Chiya led the group through the stone steps swallowed by the weeds, feeling a faint stinging sensation as the sharp blades of grass brushed against their ankles.
You can see the torii gate from the front.
The vermilion paint on the torii gate has peeled off to some extent. In a darker environment, it might give the illusion of being stained with blood from a distance.
"So, generally speaking, to create a scary atmosphere, a darker environment is better," Wang Ma Xiaoji offered a fair assessment. "By the way, why did we always start our operations at night before?"
“Inside the school, there are too many people during the day, making it inconvenient to move around. Outside the school, by some twist of fate, it was already night when we got there.” Tsukino and Chiya recalled the incidents they had encountered before. “Besides, with the mark on us, we didn’t have the patience to wait until dawn to act in order to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.”
During their conversation, the three of them had already passed through the torii gate.
Legend has it that stepping through the torii gate signifies formal entry into the realm of the gods. However, since the shrine is now abandoned, does this also mean that the deities originally enshrined there have departed?
However, the existence of gods was irrelevant to Tsukino and Chiya. Influenced by their family environment from a young age, they did not have much reverence for the existence of gods.
The stone lanterns that once stood on both sides of the approach path, now rendered useless, had some fallen over and shattered on the ground, covered by weeds, with only faint traces visible. Tsukino and Chiya glanced at them, making sure not to trip over the broken pieces.
The path here isn't easy to walk on; one wrong step and you might trip unexpectedly. However, Tsukino, Chiya, and Hinata, having memories of coming here a week ago, were mentally prepared for this.
When they truly came into this world and began to act, it was the morning after they had gone to the shrine with their classmates at night, as they remembered it. In other words, their experience of visiting the shrine was only a memory forced into their minds; they had actually set foot on this land today.
Even in such a world, Ouma Kokichi, no longer a student of Hope's Peak, was still in a different class from Chiyo and the others, and naturally didn't participate in the activities of students from other classes. But even so, the overgrown weeds before him were enough to make one cautious with every step.
Tsukino and Chiya knew that although Ohma Kokichi had never been here before, his eyesight and mind were normal, and he would naturally be careful walking on this kind of road. Although this guy often did some unexpected things, he wasn't actually the type to act crazy, so there shouldn't be any problems right now...?
Before their minds could process it, Tsukino and Chiya's bodies reacted instinctively, quickly catching Ohma Kokichi who nearly stumbled and fell to the ground: "Are you alright?"
"Ah... thanks. But wait a minute."
Wang Ma Xiaoji reacted quickly. If Tsukino and Chiya hadn't caught him, he probably would have recovered quickly enough to avoid actually falling. But since they had helped him, Wang Ma Xiaoji used the support to steady himself. After thanking them, he didn't rush forward but instead squatted down.
Um?
Tsukino and Chiya noticed something amiss, so they patiently waited for Ohma Kokichi to squat down, part the weeds, and look down, searching for something: "Do you need any help?"
“No need, there’s no need for that. Because…” The purple-haired boy, who had been hanging his head, paused slightly before standing up again, “...it’s already been found.”
As Wang Ma Xiaoji spoke, he carefully brushed the dust off the items on his hands before extending his hand to Tsukino and Chiya, saying, "Look."
This is... a hair clip, right?
What was in Ouma Kokichi's hand was clearly visible. It was a very delicate and beautiful red bow-shaped hair clip. Although it had been left alone on the ground, it still looked very new... The dust that had accumulated on it earlier seemed to be mostly from Ouma accidentally stepping on it earlier.
Tsukino and Chiya reacted for two seconds, then suddenly understood what Ohma Kokichi meant. Before he could remind them, they took the hair clip from his hand and put it in their bags.
I don't know if I'll ever need this hair clip that was left on the ground, but I'll keep it for now.
"..." Hyuga Hajime had naturally noticed the commotion from the other two, so he stopped as well. After seeing the hair clip that Ohma Kokichi had taken out, he seemed to remember something and fell silent for a moment, not joining in their conversation.
This was just a minor incident along the way. From picking up the hair clip to putting it away and continuing on, it didn't take much time in total.
That hair clip...
Hinata thought for a moment, but ultimately said nothing. He knew very well that the two people walking ahead of him didn't need any further reminders; there were some things that all three of them understood perfectly well.
After walking along the overgrown road and then bypassing the main hall of the shrine, Tsukino and Chiya headed towards a residence within the shrine grounds with a clear goal in mind.
This was the former residence of the shrine's chief priest, and it is now abandoned here as well, with no trace of human life remaining.
The door was locked, but with Wang Ma Xiaoji there, it wasn't a problem at all.
The dream they had at noon today has largely faded from Tsukino and Chiya's minds. Fortunately, he wrote it down in time, so he now knows exactly which room they need to go to.
However, before they reached that point, all three of them stopped in their tracks.
Hajime Hyuga: "Look there."
Wang Ma Xiaoji: "I saw it! I saw it with both eyes—"
Tsukino and Chiya: "It really was her."
On the wall of the living room in the house hangs a family photo.
A man, a woman, and a baby being held in the woman's arms. The baby, with its big, round eyes, looked incredibly innocent and adorable as it gazed at the camera.
The little one, new to the world, couldn't understand the meaning of taking pictures, but the two adults nestled together did. They smiled at the camera, looking very happy.
The girl they saw falling from the building this afternoon should be named Kazuko Sakuraba.
In Tsukino and Chiya's true, not instilled, memories, the girl had died more than a year ago, before he found Ohma Kokichi, by jumping off a building.
These were the names that Tsukino and Chiya discovered after their trip to Yokohama, based on information provided by the murder detective. He asked Watanabe Tsuna Bandai to further investigate the Sakuraba family, but they couldn't find any photos of anyone related to them online.
No, rather than saying they couldn't find them... it's more accurate to say that the faces in the photos they did find all exhibited a strange, extremely unsettling distortion. Watanabe Tsuna even complained to Tsukino and Chiya about this, saying it was a setting from some classic horror work.
The family photo in the room shows Sakuraba Kazuko as an infant, so it's not very relevant. However, the other two people in the photo... the former head priest of this shrine, Sakuraba Tsukasa, and his wife, Sakuraba Aki, in their youth, are quite representative.
The girl who fell to her death today bears a striking resemblance to the couple in the photo.
Tsukino and Chiya lingered for a moment on the now-old family photo, but soon Chiya took the initiative and walked deeper into the house.
Wangma Xiaoji and Hyuga Hajime followed. For a moment, only a few clear footsteps could be heard inside the house.
Tsukino and Chiya arrived at a study.
The study was the original purpose of this room, but now... there are very few books left, and the empty shelves are covered with a thick layer of dust, except for a few scattered books.
Ignoring the layout of the study, Tsukino and Chiya walked straight to the spot where they had fallen in their sleep and squatted down.
"Hey, looking at it this way, there's actually something there." Wangma Xiaoji poked his head out from above. "So, did you and Kozukino get a message in your dreams?"
Tsukino and Chiya: "Perhaps that's true."
Wang Ma Xiaoji: "Could you please ask it to tell me the real name of a certain mysterious man with dark circles under his eyes in a dream?"
Tsukino and Chiya: "You're still thinking about that notebook... I think it might not work. What I dream about isn't something I can control."
While chatting idly with Ohma Kokichi, Tsukino and Chiya reached out and ignored the dust on the ground. After groping around for a while, they cleverly lifted a piece of floorboards.
Suddenly, a faint stench wafted out from the space below.
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